“Who leads and serves the church? 

Series: The Church [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

August 18, 2019

Introductory Comments:

Have you ever been a part of a leaderless organization? It’s a mess. All organizations need leaders! Whether it’s a home, a business, a sports team, or a church, a leader is needed. 

We know from God’s Word that the ultimate head, foundation, and leader of the Church is the Lord Jesus Christ. 

As we think of Jesus as the leader of the universal, capital “C,” Church, we must recognize that as the chief Shepherd, Jesus has also enlisted other leaders for individual local churches. 

Today, we’re going to learn who leads and serves those local churches. 

Before we dive into this question, let’s pray together and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us. 

(prayer)

As we discover what the Bible says regarding church leadership we must first discuss a foundational truth that we believe concerning local churches. That truth is that we believe that local churches are autonomous and congregationally led. 

When we say that First Baptist Church Bartow is autonomous that means that we do not answer to anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no governing organization that tells us what to do; there is no bishop, pope, or patriarch to whom we answer; and there is no one who decides what we preach, whom we hire, and what kind of building we have. We willingly choose to affiliate and cooperate with other churches and organizations, but we do not answer to anyone else. 

We say that the church is congregationally led in that it is ultimately governed by the congregation. The congregation chooses the pastor, votes in members, practices discipline, approves budgets, makes up its committees, and more. Furthermore, every member of the church has a voice in the church. While the church may be led by certain people, and certain decisions may be made by those leaders, ultimately the congregation is responsible for itself. 

We believe in the autonomous church and the congregationally led church because that is the picture we have in the New Testament. When it comes to church matters, there was no governing structure beyond the local churches in the Bible, and there should be no governing structure beyond the local church today. 

Although the authority rests with the local church, she still must have leaders, both for practical reasons and for biblical reasons. Let us then discuss the biblical offices for New Testament local churches. 

First, . . .

I. Pastors are called to lead and teach the church. [on screen]

God, indeed, has a plan for the church to be led and that plan is for pastors to lead churches. This is the way God designed it. 

Before we get into what the Bible says regarding pastors, let’s get our language correct concerning pastors. 

The Bible uses two main Greek words to refer to what we call pastors. These words are presbuterous, which translates as “elder” or “shepherd;” and the word episkop, which translates as “bishop” or “overseer.” In only one instance, Paul also uses the word poimenas to refer to a pastor. 

It’s clear from their usage that these titles for pastors are used interchangeably in Scripture. The terms elder, shepherd, overseer, bishop, and pastor all refer to what we know of today as the leader of a local church, a pastor. 

As one preacher pointed out, the terms elder and pastor go together like the terms dad and father. They essentially mean the same thing.

So, with that understanding, listen to what God’s Word says about pastors as leaders of the church:

Read Acts 14:23 

23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. [on screen]

The apostles and the early Christians planted churches like crazy during the early days. When they did so, they appointed elders, or pastors. Every church needed pastors. 

Read Acts 20:17

17 Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and s